PROSPECT HEIGHTS – The funeral Mass for Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell of Los Angeles will be next Friday, March 3, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, almost two weeks after he was shot and killed in his residence. 

Bishop O’Connell, 69, was found fatally shot in his Hacienda Heights home on Feb. 18, according to authorities. 

The suspect in the case, Carlos Medina, the husband of Bishop O’Connell’s housekeeper, has since admitted to murder, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. He has been charged with one count of murder and a “special allegation” that he personally used a firearm. 

Medina, 61, a resident of Torrance, California, is being held on $2 million bail, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Department records. A motive for the slaying remains unknown. 

Ahead of the March 3 funeral, a San Gabriel Pastoral Region Memorial Mass will be held on Wednesday, March 1, at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Hacienda Heights. Bishop O’Connell was episcopal vicar for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Pastoral Region since 2015 when Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop. 

On March 2, there will be a public viewing at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, which will be followed by a vigil Mass. Both the public viewing and March 3 funeral Mass will be livestreamed on the cathedral’s YouTube channel. 

Since his death, Bishop O’Connell has been remembered as a man of deep prayer and a peacemaker in the community who always made sure to serve those on the margins. A native of County Cork, Ireland, he was ordained in 1979 for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. 

“He was a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant, and he had a passion for building a community where the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honored and protected,” Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles said in a statement.